X-bit labs

First in DirectX 10.1: ATI Radeon HD 3850/3870 (page 19)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin , Yaroslav Lyssenko, Anton Shilov

[ 01/25/2008 | 10:31 AM ]

Performance in First-Person 3D Shooters

Battlefield 2142

This game doesn’t support display resolutions of 16:10 format, so we use a resolution of 1920x1440 pixels (4:3 format) instead of 1920x1200 for it.

The ATI Radeon HD 3870 performs up to our expectations that it would deliver about the same performance as the Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB. It is even a little bit faster due to the higher core frequencies. As you can see, the narrower, 256-bit, memory bus has no effect on the new card’s performance even at 1920x1440.

Alas, the RV670-based cards cannot rival Nvidia’s GeForce 8800 GT, yet they ensure a high level of comfort at resolutions up to 1600x1200/1680x1050. Their minimum speed is never below a critical level even at 1920x1200. Considering the low price of both models, they seem to be quite appealing. Let’s see if it’s true for other games as well.

BioShock

BioShock doesn’t support FSAA when running in Windows Vista’s DirectX 10 environment. That’s why we benchmarked the cards without FSAA.

The ATI Radeon HD 3800 series sets no records, yet doesn’t look like a loser, either. Particularly, the senior model is no worse than the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB and even beats it at 1920x1200, the minimum speed being always high. The junior model’s average frame rate of 45fps with a minimum of 27fps at 1600x1200 seems to be quite enough for normal play. At a price of $200, this is a real gift for every gamer who cannot afford a top-end graphics card.